Airtel Money IPO excludes Nigeria’s SmartCash unit

The offer was priced at £1.96 per share on October 1, giving Airtel Money a total valuation of £5.3 billion. Conditional trading opened on October 9, with formal admission following on October 14. The listing covers operations in 13 African countries.

It was a sale of existing shares only. Minority investors sold 270 million shares, about 11% of the company, and raised roughly £582 million between them. No new shares were created, so Airtel Money itself received no fresh capital. Airtel Africa keeps a 77.85% stake, worth about $5.4 billion at the offer price.

A Central Bank Rule Pulled Nigeria Out

The reason sits in a Central Bank of Nigeria directive dated June 6, 2024, according to Airtel Money’s prospectus. It requires mobile money and payment service bank licenses to be held by entities that carry a local telecom license and fall under local regulatory oversight.

To comply, Airtel moved its 25% SmartCash stake to Airtel Networks Limited, its Nigerian telecom company, in December 2025. Airtel Money says it is “exploring options” to bring SmartCash Nigeria back into the group’s perimeter. The prospectus, however, gives “no assurance as to the timing or outcome,” because any such move needs regulatory approval. More detail is on Airtel Money’s IPO page.

The numbers on the listed business are still substantial:

• About 53 million monthly active users as of June 30, 2026
• $213 billion in payments processed in the 12 months to June 2026
• Revenue of $1.35 billion for the year ending March 2026, up 36%
• Profit after tax of $373 million
• More than 75 million Airtel phone customers in its active markets who do not yet use the wallet

Shares Slipped Below the Offer Price

Early trading has been soft. Shares dipped under the £1.96 offer price, touching a low of around £1.74 on October 13, during conditional trading. Citi, one of the banks on the deal, issued a stabilization notice, which means it may buy shares to support the price.

The next thing to watch is whether the Central Bank of Nigeria rules on SmartCash’s ownership. That decision is the only route for Nigeria to join the listed group.

Hashlytics Take

Investors are being asked to pay a $7 billion valuation for a business that has already conceded its largest and most complicated market on regulatory grounds, with no timeline for its return. Add a secondary-only offer, where the proceeds went to sellers and not to the company, and a share price that needed stabilization within days, and the soft debut reads as a pricing signal. The 75 million customers who do not yet use the wallet are the growth story, but until Nigeria’s status is settled, the market is valuing that story with an asterisk attached.